Cauldron - A Military History Podcast

Battle of Königgrätz 3 July 1866

Episode Summary

Few battles in history are so complete and decisive as Koniggratz. In a day the Austro-Prussian War was won and ended. The brilliant Moltke the Elder faced a much larger Austrian army and roundly defeated it. That, however, doesn’t mean it was easy. On July 3rd 1866 Moltke and his army’s fate hung in the balance as the Austrian forces fought harder and harder before the timely arrival of the Prussian salvation decided the day.

Episode Notes

Few battles in history are so complete and decisive as Koniggratz. In a day the Austro-Prussian War was won and ended. The brilliant Moltke the Elder faced a much larger Austrian army and roundly defeated it. That, however, doesn’t mean it was easy. On July 3rd, 1866 Moltke and his army’s fate hung in the balance as the Austrian forces fought harder and harder before the timely arrival of the Prussian salvation decided the day.

 

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Episode Transcription

Bendek had failed to reach the Army of the Iser and so failed to, in his mind at least secure safety, but he still maintained an overwhelming numerically superiority. It should have been enough, if not to win, then at least to blunt the Prussian advance into Bohemia and Austrian territory. It was not.

Bendek realized his only hope was to defeat in detail the Prussian armies as they arrived tot he battlefield. This picking off one at a time of the much smaller enemy armies was a smart plan, the defeat in detail game play has worked many a time from Ancient time to Napoleon to Lee but Bendek was not the guy to make it work. And beyond the general the Austrian system was not the system for complex, time sensitive synchronized operations. The diversity of language and thought combined with the rivalry and nepotism made for a dangerously ridge and operationally inept force.

All Bendek could do with any degree of certainty was sit tight and hope the Prussians broke against his defensive line. Bendek bulged his center out from the Elbe thinking this would give him a good position to split the Prussians once they had been weakened by the Austrian defense. But Bendek didn’t see what even one of his junior officers recognized as obvious, “What this really means is that now the Prussians can hit us from three directions…what a stupid idea!”.

The Austrian’s had a brief moment of hope as the Army of the Iser, the 60k man army west of their current positions that he had been trying to link up with, turned and quick marched into the battle area. The hope was that they might effect a breakout or by adding their numbers to Bendeks he would have too many men for Moltke to deal with. The glimmer of salvation was just taht a glimmer. The Prussians unloaded on the Iser Army and sent it packing in a flash. Soon after the 29th of June the Iser army was out of action. So fast did the Prussian rifle fire rain down on the Austrian infantry that they were unable to form up into squares to deal with the Prussian cavalry. Bendek was distraught, writing the Emperor “Debacle of the Iser Army forces me to retreat in the direction of Koniggratz”

The Prussians had done a fine job in the fighting wherever it took place but not everything was going Moltke’s way. The sheer mass of men traveling along the few rail lines available meant massive traffic jams. The weather turned and men found themselves soaked, tired, and miserable. Food began to become an issue as not enough was getting to the men that needed it the most. As with most armies through history, this meant morale plummeted and men began to disappear. Desertion started to be a real problem for Moltke and her realized that whatever happened over the next few days, this campaign could not go on indefinitely.

Moltke’s armies arrived in less than ideal shape and even more worrisome, not all at once. His First and Elbe Armies pressed the Austrian positions from the Northwest and West respectively, but the 2nd Army was not in the line holding the left flank down. The 2nd army was somewhere in the north-northeast and Moltke had no idea if it would make it to the battle in time to play a part. If it did not arrive at all the Austrian numbers would indeed overwhelm the Prussians and any hope for a unified Germany led from Berlin would evaporate.

On July 3rd some 400k men from both nations jammed into the arena and so began the largest battle in Europe from Napoleon to 1914.

At 8am Moltke began a 300 gun artillery bombardment hoping to soften up the poorly led and outfitted Austrians. The fact that he was attacking at all was dangerous move. Without the arrival of the rest of his army, Moltke was heavily out manned. This was going to be like a welterweight fighter striking at a heavyweight. Fast and furious and hoping to overwhelm the enemy but if that heavyweight gets the chance to use its full power and holds up the onslaught long enough the results could be devastating for the welterweight.

Moltke was trying to force a result, he new the Austrians would be slow to respond and he couldn’t afford a long drawn out run up to the fighting, nor could he afford a costly running campaign. Added to these pressures the Prussian commander had both Bismarck and the Kaiser in attendance, anxiously watching as the most important event in their lives to date played out before them. And even though the industrial revolution was in full swing, the modern day was just on the horizon, and his armies arrived tot he battlefield on trains, Moltke was commanding by line of sight. The same way Napoleon and Wellington and Caesar and Pompey, and Alexander himself had commanded their vast hosts. The complexity of keeping all the data points of a proto modern army on the move and in battle in ones head and making decisions based on the running tally of info is hard to comprehend. Moltke clearly was under a deal of stress.

But Bendek was under more. Yes he had more men than Moltke but he had positioned himself in a way that didn’t allow him to take full advantage of really his only advantage, mass. Because his staff had spent the day before the battle, July 2nd, playing the blame game and writing in their journals the many reasons why none of them were responsible for the debacle that was about to unfold, Bendek and his commanders really had to no plan outside of wait and then swarm them.

Interestingly, as bad as things were on the Austrian side, the Prussians still had a mess on their hands. By mid morning 2nd Army was still stretched over 25 miles, slogging its way south through muddy roads on its way to the battlefield. They wouldn’t arrive until well after noon. Meaning the Austrian numbers and artillery, the most advanced and well equipped fighting force the Austrians had, actually held its ground and then some through the morning.

Four Prussian divisions attacked Bendek’s center at Swiepwald, attempting to split his army at the center and then fold each side of the line up in turn. It didn’t work. In fact the Prussian infantry got itself pounded and sent packing by the rifled field guns of the Austrian artillery. The Prussian left wing, still swinging in the wind and unprotected, started to feel pressure as Austrian probing attacks sought to outflank Moltke’s line.

Things were as bad in the Prussian command tent as they were at the front. The Kaiser seeing the potential collapse of his army screamed at his general “Moltke! Moltke! We are losing this battle!”. The stakes were too high and he saw his new crown tumbling off his royal head. Two things kept that from happening; one is that the enemy commander was never up to the task and two, his commander was a man of true steel and iron will.

Bendek, had he the courage and vision could have poured his right flank around the Prussian left and smothered Moltke’sarmy before the whole thing had even arrived to the fight. He did not.

Moltke responded to his frantic Kaiser “Here there will be no retreat. Here we are fighting for the very existence of Prussia!” Because he recognized there was no other option but victory. They had to stand, stay, and fight on to whatever outcome, but there was certainly no way to stop. Again, it was understood by Moltke that though this would be a Kabinetskrieg to the other great powers, for Prussia this was an existential moment, a fight for their vision of the future and their place in that future.

The chance for Bendek to defy defeat and the moment of danger for Motlke both passed at 1pm. Pipes trilling and drums thumping the Prussian 2nd Amry arrived on Moltke left flank and almost instantly the battle turned. Though tired from marching the 2nd was fresh form fighting and the adrenaline kicked in. They took to their grim task with gusto and their 11th hour arrival had the expected effect of gassing up the Prussian Elbe and 1st armies while gut punching the Austrians.

The 2nd army combat effectiveness was apparent immediately as they advanced into the Austrian lines shooting holes through it and shattering an entire Austrian corps in a little over half an hour. Like a tactical Great White shark Moltkesmelled blood. He threw in his entire reserve. He was so close now to his own personal Cannae he could taste it. If his men could swarm round the edges of Bendek’s line and win the foot race they could link up and encircle the entire Austrian North Army. Not just a victory, Moltke would have destroyed Austria’s ability to fight on.

Of course Molke didn’t quite win his Canne at Konnigratz, tat would come in a couple years out side the city of Sedan, but the scale of his victory was taking shape by mid afternoon. The Austrian line began to falter and then collapse by 3pm. The Prussians advancing had to deal with thousands of prisoners surrendering, impeding the Prussian speed forward. Shock and fear overwhelmed most of the Austrian soldiers in the fighting but not all. Some units fought on bravely, the famous “Battery of the Dead” among them. A battery of Austrian guns near the village of Chlum on the hotly contested Prussian left continued to fight on even as the Prussians, firing rapidly from the hip like John Wayne, inexorably moved forward. The fated battery would slow but not stop the Prussians and they died to a man.

Austrian officers, sword’s drawn and screaming oaths at their men, led pointless yet brave charges into the lead ladden air. A preview of the summer of 1914 was unknowingly being watched by anyone in observance of the battle. Fanatical charges led to little more than more dead and wounded. Swarms of Austrian cavalry, thought to be a standout branch and better than their counterparts, could never come to grips with the Prussian infantry. The incredible rate of fire of the Dreyese needle gun kept the one-time kings of the battlefield from ever getting close enough to swing a saber. Added to the hailstorm of lead were the nascent fire and move tactics taking form. As men could now reload from a kneeling or prone position they realized they could also reload from behind a fence or wall or cart. This cover kept them safe from enemy fire and when in the Swiepwald it meant the enemy cavalry would be at deadly disadvantage if it risked a foray into the forest.

The only thing that had really worked for and been consistent all day for the Austrians was their artillery and by 3.30 that two was crumbling. Gun batteries were, without orders, packing up and pulling away. Some didn’t have the wear withal even to pack up, they just rode off as fast as they could. The trickle down of the artillery guns fleeing was that even if Bendek was the kind of leader that might be able to rally his men and affect a fighting withdrawl they would have had no cover and the Prussians no impediment to their advance.

The only hope at this point for the Austrian army was to get across the Elbe and to the relative safety of the fortress of Konigratz. Once there it was hoped they could regroup and figure out their next moves. Of course crossing the river became hard for the tens of thousands of Austrians when their commander, Bendek, once across and safe had several bridges destroyed leaving only one for his whole fleeing army to cross. The wedge of land leading to the bridge, a mere 2.5 miles wide funnel, quickly filled with the scrambling Austrian mass. The Prussians, ever the proffesionals, pressed on pouring fire into every nook and cranny. The area was crisscrossed with trails, farmer tracts, and country roads that soon became graveyards. One infamous trail known as the Way of the Dead earned it’s nasty new moniker due tot he sheer volume of bodies piled up along it’s length. One Austrian officer recalled “Cavalry, infantry, artillery, trains, everything; we couldn’t clear them out or restore any kind of order. Our columns where broken up. The enemy directed his fire into this overfilled ravine and every ball hit home. We retreated, leaving thousands of dead.”

Phobos ruled supreme, the Austrian army became no more than writhing mass of refuges. By 5pm it was over as thousands surrendered. Hundreds jumped or were pushed into the fast flowing Elbe River and drowned. Even under the supposed safety of the walls of Konigratz the Austrians found no succor. The city’s defenders closed their gates and even fired upon Austrian soldiers trying like made to enter and get away from the murderous Prussians and their needle guns.

As the 4th of July dawned Moltke took stock and what wonderful day it was! His victory was astounding and almost completely lopsided. The Austrians had suffered 24k killed and wounded and 20k taken prisoner. Almost one out of every five Austrian soldiers had been rendered ineffective for any upcoming campaign. The cost to Moltke and the Kaiser? A little under 10k. 1/16th of his fighting force. Beyond the numbers Moltke had destroyed the Austrian national psyche and will to fight. The North Army eventually reconstituted and still could field around 200k men. If they could bring their other armies into the arena they’d have 350k men to bring to battle but it didn’t matter, in Vienna the desire for a fight was gone. By july 22nd the Habsburg court called for an end to the fighting and terms.

Bismarck, ever on the con, was already planning his next moves which would culminate in the collapse of the new Bonaparte in Paris and the unification of the German states. But that was down the road, for the immediate he needed calm and peace so he bullied the Kaiser into accepting a very limited and reasonable peace treaty. No meaningful or sizable annexations and no territorial gains. instead of large swaths of land, Berlin demanded large sums of cash in the form of huge indemnities. The brilliance in this seeming humility oin the part of Bismarck was that it kept the other great powers focused elsewhere and uninterested in little Prussia. Had the balance of power been truly overturned and Austria been cut up into pieces, Paris, London, and Moscow would have had to step in and right the continental ship, something none of the great powers had any interest in doing. And, beyond the simple demands of the victor, Bismark had been so thorough in isolating and Moltke had so swiftly defeated Austria the whole affair was over before anyone really noticed what was happening.

Austria had lost its position of strength and its spot at the big kid table and would never really get it back. Internal strife and a general national malaise kept the Austro-Hungarian Empire from ever gaining real traction after Konigratz. Ineffective and easily manipulated, the former great power was relegated to junior status and errand boy of Berlin. The Empire of the Habsburgs, a powerhouse for 500 years only had a few decades left before it would be dissolved.

Prussian, soon to be Germany, was experiencing the total opposite of its southern sister state. Millions of people would soon be added to the Prussian population constituting the Volk. The power of Prussia and then Germany, both economically and militarily, was hard to imagine it was so exponential in its potential. Konigratz gave the Prussia state a legitimacy and weight it otherwise would have never had but desperatly needed and desired. Berlin was being taken into account in the halls of power, not for granted. And with Bismarck at the helm pulling all the right levers diplomatically, and Moltke guiding the Prussian military into the modern age of science and technology, all of Europe was put on high alert after Konigratz. Truly decisive in the moment, one of the rare battles to be both war wining and war ending, Konigratz stands as a great achievement in Prussian and military history. But, such a total and generally painless victory feels good. Wins beget wins. Why not try it again? Who else could the power of Prussian planning and military intellect be tested against? Maybe Paris? And then…well I suppose we’ll have to cover that when we get there!